He'd sent Edric.
Edric had returned in borrowed clothes, bringing word of the demon lord Satou — and Satou had made his position clear. If Aldenmere wanted to discuss partnership, the king himself had to come in person. No intermediaries. No letters. He wanted both leaders in the same room.
Now Aldric was riding east himself.
—----------------
The road narrowed on the second day as forest appeared on the horizon. Edric rode beside him in the comfortable silence of someone who knew what waited at the other end of this journey and had made peace with not being able to adequately prepare anyone for it.
"You're quiet," Edric observed.
"Thinking."
"About what specifically?"
"The gap between accounts and reality." Aldric watched the road ahead. "Every time you described what you saw, you kept saying the description didn't fully transfer. That the experience was larger than the words."
"Yes."
